Character development

Game Idea Development

Characters, yummmmm

Game characters: look familiar?

Background, History &Advancement

What is character?• Is it something that happens inside your brain?

– How do we re-frame characters?• Matthew Barney

– http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xhruRb2PEVQ• What is your definition of character?

– Is it a thing walking around in the environment?– In “Fracture” the environment blurs the line between stage and actor; it

becomes a character • http://www.lucasarts.com/games/fracture/

– What else can we reframe to discover and develop and define what a character is?

• How does perception create character in our minds?– Alison Jackson

• http://www.ted.com/talks/alison_jackson_looks_at_celebrity.html

Character profiles Basic Statistics (Name, Gender, Age etc) Type (we will go over this in a minute) Background and history Physical/ Vocal Characteristics Intellectual/Mental/Personality Attributes and Attitudes Emotional Characteristics Spiritual Characteristics How the Character is Involved in the Story

How character is different at the end of the story from when the story began?

Relevance Do character profile exercise here.

There are characters all around us http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/237

Classic Game Character types Human

Heroic “everyman” Gender issues (reversal)

Animal Anthropomorphic

Fantasy Human vs. Non-Human

Mythic Historical Licensed

Visual Character DevelopmentTechniques

Verbal Character DevelopmentDialogue

• Reveals character• Reveals emotion• Advances the plot• Reveals conflict• Establishes relationships• Comments on action

Character Movement Signature Idle Walking cycle

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ePhHDs53lfo

Muybridge http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eadweard

_Muybridge http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=93

C5JhSqr1U http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RU

8lwLZU94Y

Ed Hooks http://www.actingforanimators.com/default.html

http://www.actingforanimators.com/Classes/

Classic Character roles

• Protagonist and Antagonist

Protagonist

• The protagonist or main character/narrator is the central figure of a story.

Co-Protagonists

Protagonist continued

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d7OAMiBzxiA

• Do protagonist exercise here.

Antagonist The antagonist is against

the main character protagonist or contends with them.

An antagonist is often a villain, but may be a force of nature, set of circumstances, an animal, or other force that is in conflict with the protagonist

Supporting characters

Classic Character Archetypes Hero Shadow Mentor Allies Guardian Trickster Herald http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qw3JqHYNB2I&fe

ature=channel Watch this one on your own

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sbspxKvb1Vs

Classic character behavior

• The life of a character– Arc– Hierarchy of needs

Character Arc

• Dirty Trick– http://www.mobilestori

es.ca/stories.php

• Deus Ex http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yoteS17NnGE

• http://www.guru3d.com/news/deus-ex-3-gdc2010-trailer/

Maslow’s hierarchy of needs• Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is often depicted as

a pyramid consisting of five levels: the four lower levels are grouped together as deficiency needs associated with physiological needs, while the top level is termed growth needs associated with psychological needs. While deficiency needs must be met, growth needs are the need for personal growth.

• The basic concept is that the higher needs in this hierarchy only come into focus once all the needs that are lower down in the pyramid are mainly or entirely satisfied. Once an individual has moved past a level, those needs will no longer be prioritized. However, if a lower set of needs is continually unmet for an extended period of time, the individual will temporarily re-prioritize those needs - dropping down to that level until those lower needs are reasonably satisfied again.

Hierarchy of needs: permeates high school and business

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oqA_oEjMjSk

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kd7tYHqAR_8

Characters have relationships

• So you have to ask yourself how are they going to interact?

• This is an example of the characters interacting without ever having met.– http://www.mobilestories.ca/

viewVideo_Renuka.php

The Relationship of the protagonist and the antagonist• http://www.youtube.com/watch?

v=4WwcMKDPb4E&feature=related• Do relationship exercise here

Character Triangle

• http://www.mobilestories.ca/viewVideo_Shuibo.php

Aristotle’s Poetics

• http://aristotle.thefreelibrary.com/Poetics-of-Aristotle

• http://librivox.org/poetics-by-aristotle/– Audio

• He is what you are reacting against when you mix up the relationships and storyline to form a plot. (non-linear storyline)

• He has a bunch of rules that I invite you to break.

Ok so you have your characters

• And your story but what are you after?– What is the motivation to make this game?– What role do the characters play in supporting the

goals of the game?

• One of the things you might use to support the theme of the game is: Identification.– What is identification?

Identification Types

• Identification with characterization• Identification with role• Identification with goals

Identification evokes:

• Sympathy vs. Empathy– Sympathize: emotional affinity in which whatever

affects one correspondingly affects the other; synonym is pity.• In gamespeak: you understand a character

– Empathize: ability to recognize, perceive and directly experientially feel the emotion of another• In gamespeak : you want to be that character

In games there are 2 types of Identification

• Player as Character• Character as Player

Player as Character

1st-person perspective Narrow perspective – immediacy

A sense of participation Inhabitation of the role Limited definition of the character

Weak identification (no visual association) 3rd Person cinematics can be jarring HALO 3

http://halo3.com/believe/shell.html

Character as Player 3rd-person perspective Wide perspective – situational awareness

Tactical considerations Observer rather than participant

Puppet the character Greater definition of the character

Strong visual associations with the character Lara Croft – Tomb Raider

Ok I know it flips back and forth between 3rd and 1st person(binoculars) but any chance I get to throw Lara into the mix I will do it.

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1tu1t_tomb-raider-anniversary-trailer-2_videogames

It all fits together

Homework

• Fill in the Character development, Gamestory and Backstory in the Game Design Doc– Save it as v2.0– In the version history of the document say what

you added and don’t forget to add a date for when the change happened.

• Extra credit – character interview